Touring the neighborhood

So it's August 11th...a bit over three months and the garden has gone from start to peak.  Odd sort of summer...long heat wave after a late start with lots and lots of rain.  Haven't done much active gardening.  Put netting over the blackberries...a bit too late to keep the birds off.  We picked about two cups of berries.  Tonight I took a bike ride in perfect weather.  The lawns were emerald green, the evening sky azure blue and a fragrant breeze coming off the fields.  The peak of summer I would say.  With the heat wave over we can take up being out doors again.  And I have four new chickens.  My last flock of six were one by one harvested by a neighborhood predator.  So my new flock is not so free ranging.  Four banties, with one rooster in the mix.  Life is back to balanced.. 

Box #2 Pencils, Staplers and Floppy Disks

Box #2...trash, thrash, all trash.  Keeping a few handy screw drivers, a couple key rings...really shouldn't bother with those...a couple pieces of broken things, who knows they might still be fixable with super glue.  It's the convergence of time, glue and pieces that's hard to come by. Keeping a small tin full of girls school pictures. And for the throwing away, if software comes on a floppy disk it's not worth even thinking about.  That made this an easy box.  I paused for a minute thinking about whether to throw away the hinged box that the disks were stored in, but I'm in the mood so off to recycling it went.  Then there was a index card box with alpha dividers.  I saved all my old drivers licenses, membership cards in historical societies, hospital patient ID cards...everybody wants to put a piece of plastic in your wallet.  Times have changed a lot in ten years.  And then there were the address pages from my 1999 Franklin Planner.  I read through all the names...many, most of people that I knew through work.  Strange to see how people who were once important enough to get a note in my address list have been forgotten so completely.  Makes me wonder about my present day work relationships...which seem important now.  Wonder what I can do differently to be sure that while they are in my life that I mindful of how short our time together will be. Every minute is of consequence.  And the rest of this STUFF...it is not of consequence.  Thanks Laurel, on to box three tomorrow.

On Another Note...My Indoor Garden

So I've decided to expand my blog topic...moving from outdoors landscape to indoors landscape.  I guess anyone who follows me will appreciate that in this life in KVille it's either one or the other.  And today, I took the first step to beating back the indoor jungle.  I emptied box one...in my goal to empty one box a day until I reach ground zero.  I may not be able to change everything, but there's no excuse for not changing what I can.  Laurel is my mentor.  She's holding me to my promise.  And maybe just maybe I can be the change that I want to see.

Box One...was file folders...from some long forgotten file cabinet, boxed for ten years without opening...like most of the boxes around here, untouched since we moved in.  I saved a bit, shredded a lot and trashed the rest.  Found my bachelor's degree, my marriage license, some old family photo negatives and a file of Christmas letters written back in the 80s.  Oh and my shot record...you know the one your mom keeps from when you were a baby..sentimental value.  That all got saved...well maybe I will pitch that shot record tomorrow.  What got trashed.: a folder full of product information from children's toys, a folder full of letters of reference and personnel evaluations from 30 years ago...really relevant stuff, my MSU transcripts the good the bad and the embarrassing.  Information about the cost of my dad's funeral...1996...Dad's been gone 15 years this September.  Guess I don't need to know the cost of his casket.  

Stay tuned, and just so you know...I really respond to applause!!

Expanding the West

So...there's been a bit of a gap here, sorry bout that friends.  Not in gardening...just in blogging.  But today and yesterday there was progress.  Thanks to Sister Karen.  Fourth of July there was a bit of extreme landscaping she helped with...we knocked down the overgrowth of the windmill.  Last year it was Laurel who did the job all by herself.  It's a miserable task and really we need a plan so that we don't have to do it again...something involving Round-up I suppose. This year..Karen and I did the cutting and Greg ran the refuse through the grinder.  Bunches of bug bites we got for our efforts and a few insults from a broody hen who had a clutch hidden deep in the overgrowth.  The rooster gave Greg some heat when he chased the hen off her nest.  Karen carefully transplanted the eggs to the laying box in the coop....alas...the transplant wasn't successful...the hen took the opportunity to return to the roost and quit the clutch.  .

And today...I pushed out the west edge of the north-south bed and planted two hydrangeas.  Hoping there will be adequate sun there for them.  I have four more buckets to add tomorrow...of spirea, and thinking about adding ferns around those plants.  I saw some big buckets of ferns marked down to five bucks.  No zone information though.

Hollyhocks are in bloom,  although there aren't so many of them.  They must be tasty to deer.  But without the fence around them the chickens have managed to knock out the Japanese beetles who ate them up last year.  Speaking of predators, Greg spotted a family of five mink in the ditch the day after one of our hens went missing.

And remembering my dedication for this blog to Lei and Karen...just to let you know I've been keeping up with the mowing too.  Sigh...miss you Lei.. and Karen hope that you are starting to poke around in that greenhouse.  Love, Log

Bath # 9, Baobobs and other Mistakes

Well, after two weekends of travel I am back onto the garden tasks...and this weekend got to the two biggies that were on my list...the hosta and the old fence.  I have nothing to say about the ninth bath.

I have to say that gardening out here in Kochville over the years has taught me a lot about the ability of the earth to recover from human intrusion. Stuff grows...over, under and through...devouring every evidence of human intention... garden paths, fences, buildings, clearings, plantings.  And then the earth moves by wind and rain and organic debris to cover the remains.  And that's the daily deal here.  At first we were innocent and overwhelmed.  Gardening seemed like a good idea with all this space, a little digging, a few seeds, a sturdy fence to keep the rabbits out.  Ten years latter, the garden contains nothing but the most hardy of perennials, not a single edible plant was every harvested...except that thyme a couple years ago.  And the fence proved most capable of keeping out the mower, the rabbits could care less.   Actually...that care less part...that could be said of us too...gardening is no easy thing to add to the list of things to do when raising kids, working, and keeping the roof from caving in...metaphorically speaking.

I think the Brits have it right, fences are best made of rock.  I have plenty of rocks, piles of them.  Hold that thought....I will not be building any rock walls this season.

 

So Saturday was the hosta day.  I got those hosta split and the garden expanded along the east side. Greg's dollar buckets from Aldi's have survived.  Sage!  Moved a big hunk of granite to balance the garden at the other end.  Rocks do add something formal to a garden.  Sunday Greg and I took out the back garden...well at least we got the fencing down. The problem with wire fencing is that weeds of the woody sort grow up through the wire and then you can't get them out...like Baobobs, they take over the planet.  (I think they are Alder's.)  Budock is my most hated weed.    I had been using the space as a nursery...sticking things in the dirt there to save them (iris) or start them (shrub starts.)  The rhubarb from Pat's house is here in this space.  Pat really wanted me to be sure to take it...might get a pie this season!   And the remains of the hollyhocks are here too.  I think that there is hope for them.

Today ended with a pleasant fire in the stick burner.  Greg and I sat by the fire thinking about where to expand our gardening next.  Rain predicted this week and I am glad for it. That is until Friday... can't have rain next weekend..Highland festival next weekend!

Betty says these flowers are Poet something or other.  They are among the remnants of the back garden...with lots and lots of blue iris.  I think they will have a home somewhere else next year...gardening has a way of pulling you into the future.

Day 9 Arduous Toil

 OK, it's true I hurt more tonight than last night.  But Greg hurts more than me.  His job involved the heavy lifting and the pic axe.  We call that arduous toil here in Kochville.  It's usually passed out as penance for errors of omission.  I think that I should have started in January getting ready for the gardening season...maybe a bit of weight lifting and yoga.  My omission!   All the trees are planted.  The rocks are rearranged.  St. Francis has a circle of Flox....still no more hostas split and that old fence isn't out yet. But hey...tomorrow it's supposed to rain and that will make it easier.  Weather was decent today, got a bit of pink on my cheeks.

So today I learned that Moss Flox requires a knife to split.  I bought a patch of it, about nine inches square which I wanted to put into small bits to put around Francis.  The stems do not separate by pulling apart. Hoping that I didn't shred it to bits and that what I tucked into the dirt will thrive.  We added a bit of white alysum and a few orange Viola.  The alysum smells so sweet, too bad it's just an annual.  The other two are perennials and with luck they will be back every year and not look so traumatized as they do now.  Aunt Karen caught Merdi and me while we were out shopping at Beehler's Green House.  She vetoed any Marigolds.  Merdi prefers yellows and oranges...or pinks.  We settled on the violas...just to give a bit of accent.  

My grub posse has managed to untidy every bit of mulch that I put down today.  Hopefully they will be done with their work soon.  It is only the second week of May.  I've decided that if we get this heavy lifting done by Memorial Day that it will be just a little maintenance here and there.  Right?  May is so sweet...no monstrous weeds, you can pass through places now that you won't be able to in just a month.  The knack of gardening is timing and remembering.  Remembering what you planted when and where and why.  I always save those plastic sticks and then forget what plants they match up to the following spring.  I have a wonderful perenial edge with small red flowers coming up this year.  But I don't remember what it is.  I was quite surprised to see it.  Guess that's the sweet side of loosing your memory...life is full of sweet surprises.

Day 8 Tuesday is for Trees

The day started out breezy, rainy and cool....you know those three miseries of mine...just on the light side...and as one gave way another took strength.  By mid afternoon the breezy was windy but at least it wasn't rainy.  Nonetheless...this was a very productive day!  We weren't planning it quite this way but the flow carried us on.  Started out heading out to Kluck's to pick out our annual tree cycling tree.  Fun thing to do, take in the Christmas tree in January and get a coupon for a new tree to pick up in May. We  chatted up the nursery man there ...learning a bit about trees and shrubs.  But we can't afford nursery trees, so we came back into town and checked out the sales and what luck, Sam's had exactly what we were hoping for in five gallon buckets for $15!  We started out with six Cleveland Pears, then Greg went back for two more of those and a couple red oaks and a a choke cherry.  He stopped at Aldi's too and found clearance annuals for $1 apiece and brought home Forsythea and Sedum and a five other things (which looked all but gone.)  I cant remember what they are and since my body hurts so much...I am not getting out of this chair to go find the tags in order to tell you.  

We lined the pears along the drive to create an "allee" or a "colonnade" along the drive.  One has to be optimistic when planning, placing and planting trees.
We had driven around Thomas township looking at other people's landscaping...the good and the bad.  Seems like people make a lot of mistakes with trees...too close together, too close to the house, too small...etc.  So we gave all that a lot of discussion and then just went with it.  Got three planted tonight, the rest go in tomorrow.  Split a few hosta today too...and Pete and the grub possee helped out.

I think tomorrow, Wednesday, is supposed to be better weather, but after today I think I will spend more time drinking coffee and considering my next move.

My job with the trees isn't so bad as Greg's, I don't have to dig holes, but I do carry water up from the ditch. I  drop a bucket and a line over the culvert and haul it up when it's half full.  Haven't strung the hose out yet, but will need to soon, these trees require lots of water.  We mixed pete moss in the holes and covered the mounds with mulch.  But since we planted fifteen dollar trees instead of 170 dollar trees I think we need to baby them.  So anyway, the day is done, and I ache...but there's some ice cream in the freezer calling my name.  I think this idea of taking a week's vacation this first week of May might be a good idea to do every year.  Get the garden totally in and then coast on into summer.  Took up drinking gin and tonic's last summer.  Ahhh....life is good.

Day 7 First Mowing x:-( Third Bath

Well there's a day done.  This time Greg's doing the bath job...and I am being sympathetically idle.  She knew she had done it this time.  I wouldn't let her sit by me at the evening stick fire...so she went down to the ditch and took a bath.  That helped...helped me decide that it was Greg's turn to give her a bath.

So on a cheerier note, the first mowing was all that could be hoped for, the mower started up with little coaxing and kept going for three hours.  I only ran over one small wad of fence wire hidden in the grass at the far end of a stretch I don't normally mow.  Greg's convinced I do this sort of stuff on purpose, nonetheless, he lets me mow the yard all summer.  I was quite pleased with myself today, pushing areas of the edge that last year we got to too late.  O, if  I had the wings of pioneer, pioneer...off to the woods I would fly....  What I really need is a brush hog.  The neighbor's tractor is bigger than mine.  And, those wavy mower paths on the front lawn...Greg mowed that section.

I "invested" in bird seed today, black oiled sunflower seed for the cardinals and nyjer for the finches. I think I am  going to like St. Francis in the garden.  Someone to chat with over my morning coffee and evening wine.  Wishing you were here.

Day 6 Second Bath...

So we were packing for the weekend in Chicago...and I really needed one more thing to do....not.  I do have say though...coming home from Chicago to a clean dog was a nice treat.  I wish the lawn was mowed and the yard manicured, but hey, that's another not...not done and not my lifestyle.  It may be another week before any progress is made in the garden, Merdi is home and I do have the week off, but I ate so much in Chicago that it may take me an entire week to restore my groove.  On the other hand...after what I ate...it might be best if I stay out in the yard.

O and by the way...St. Francis arrived for mother's day.  Repete...son of Pete...is a bit wary of him but I think he will get over it.  I am planting alysum around the base this week, hope to get that great fragrance which deters the cats and attracts the bees..  The song birds have him figured out.  It's a peaceable spot in the yard.

Day 5 Evening Gardening

Wednesday evening was surprisingly productive in the garden considering that I was home late from work and didn't step out into the yard until seven.  It was warm, not windy, not raining....ahhh.  So I started with just a little ambition, I started a fire in the stick burner and sat down with my coffee. I have a garden purse for things that need to stay out of the dirt, camera, blackberry, matches, and....a box of licorice.

So I was there enjoying my coffee and desert and then I decided to do just one thing....I have to sneak up on myself.  I tilled the west side of the hosta bed and then I put the preen down.  Am going to be gone to Chicago this weekend and I know it's going to rain again so I wanted that Preen before the weeds get started.

Greg came out and decided to get the mower battery charged for me.  Grass will be tall when I get back from Chicago. Our mower is going into it's eleventh season of hard labor...looks a bit worse for the wear and admittedly the neglect. Not that Cadilac that Lei rides for sure.  My retirement dream is a big Zero Turn Radius mower with a cup holder and a cushy seat.  I've officially moved into the cushy seat phase of life, leather and heated is my preference.  Some days I get off this mower and have to stand still there for a minute or two waiting for my body to be ready to walk. It takes about two and a half hours to mow the yard and some days I power up and don't quit till its done, then pay for it when I climb down from the mower.

After putting the charger on the mower, Greg decided to work on the blackberry trellis...said something about fruity canes and flora canes and ... I just pick the berries, he makes the jam.  Mostly our berries are wild, but we are moving toward more cultivated trellis in order to be able to pick more easily and mowing back the wild spots where the berries are grow in the edge of the "un-mowable."

The chickens like those un-mowable spots in the yard, they get the protection of the brush and they do love those berries. We get purple chicken poops for the month of May. They've been busy working on the bugs this month. With any luck they will knock out the Japanese beetle grubs. Those bugs wrecked my Hollyhocks last year which is why I am relocating them with seed this year. Don't let me forget I've got to do that next week! Still haven't decided quite where they should go. Half the problem is trying to figure out where they would be least likely be disturbed by landscaping and construction plans.

The light of the sunset through the woodlot made these seed pods seem other-worldly. I remembered the year I had been in the hospital most of the month of April and Dad brought me up a twig of the chestnut tree that was just leafing out. It looked like a little palm tree. I had been in the hospital so long that everything seemed new. Spring is like that.

Day 4 Pause on Progress

Too darn cold... at temps below 50 I have only one thing in mind...staying warm.  I can cope with cold, rain and wind...but never more than one at a time. Tuesday was cold and rainy.  So I took the day off and am sure that's why I had bad dreams about weeds overtaking the work. Will report back soon on what I found with that coupon, yikes, I think it expires today!   Log

Day 3 Intermission for Dog Bath

Well my number one garden helper and stick chewer rolled in some organic fertilizer...smelled like possum dung. Wish I knew where the stash was because I am sure she will go back for more.  The house helper who discovered stinky on the back porch reeking and looking guilty immediately headed back off to Alma College for the last leg of her BA and left stinky tied up in the yard, waiting for me to come home.  So I did the job then settled down in my garden side chair to a grilled burger and glass of wine.  Ahh...life is good anyway...song birds are abundant this year.  Finches mostly, but I am seeing cardinals too.  The feeders empty fast.  I've got a JoAnn's coupon burning a hole in my purse...50% off every thing even items already marked down...and I have had my eye on a garden statue...St. Francis holding a bowl with birds perched on his arm...I know, kitsch. Promise I won't enshrine it with a bathtub. All my bird baths thus far have been destroyed by clutsy dogs so I'm cautiously considering this one.  I have a spot in mind under the lilac.  The lilac is an ancient tree....crowned out several rings and really needing to be cut back. The flowers are small and faded and only at the way top of the tree, but the birds love the cover there so I am reluctant to raze it to get better growth.  A tough gardening decision for sure.  I have a great view of the lilac and the bird feeders from my new second floor "studio" window.  Hopefully, soon, I will have another view from the window seat in my kitchen.  My ideal life...resting and watching the birds.  Not a view of the North Sea, I know.  Guess I will have to make a special trip to enjoy that peace.

End of Day 2

Sunday:  Well I've gone to bed with heat for the sore spots and couldn't move another step even to get ice cream.  ALL DAY out doors...raked off the hostas, carted off the waste, burned two wagon loads of sticks, bought a new tiller tool at Tractor Supply...the manual type of course...and charted a plan to expand the shaded side of the bed off to the west.  Will start splitting hostas this week now that I can see where the crowns are.  They are up about two inches today.  It was wonderfully warm today...you could watch the grass grow.  I can hardly wait to post pictures of my gorgeous iris...hybrids that Betty gave me.

A word about perspective...I have decided that my mug just doesn't take well with those arm's length self portraits but my feet...are just far enough away.  So brace yourself for views of my boots...TSC Ariats no less, darn good muckers.  This view...a hosta crown.

So you gardening friends...I've got a couple questions.  Where should I plant Hollyhocks?  I've got a big bag of seeds from last year when I decided they had to be moved.  I know that I won't get blooms planting this year...but I want to find a spot where I won't have to fuss with them and they wont be in the way...shade or sun?  My number one garden rule...this one for Lei...plant nothing in the way of the mower.  A corrallary is that fences are for protecting weeds....therefore...fences are in the way of the mower. I am tearing out a fenced garden this year...which was one of the first things we accomplished here., built a small kitchen garden which has held iris, hollyhocks, rhubarb, raspberries, and ducks, but mostly weeds...so it's gone in 2011.

And, another one...has anyone braved using the mulch from the City?  I know I can get one truck load per drivers license but I am a bit nervous about what sort of weeds I might be bringing in. Really...like there aren't plenty of the ferocious varriety out here to scare the wits out of some silly city weed.

This is our Annebelle...in one of the low spots in the woodlot still flooded from last weekend's rain. Perfect spot for cooling dog feet and getting a drink.  House is always a bit smelly in the spring, but dogs are good garden helpers.  This one is a stick destroyer.

And,  make my day, really, I am in bed as I write this ...looking dog awful when I get a Skype from Lei, video of course, we talked 45 minutes. And trust me, she looks better than I do.  Says she might be flying home on Tuesday!!!  Must be the sweet smell of the Scottish turf wafting across the pond...or maybe it was that visit from Dr. Winky. So good to see you there Wink, I feel much better knowing you checked on all the details.  Love you all.

Zone 6 Day One

This blog is for Karen and Lei...dear ones...stranded for the short while in the desert...away from their beloved Tillygrain.  Knowing that Karen would rather be shopping for garden gnomes and Lei would rather be riding the mower...I have decided to provide them with a blog which will give them gardening stories to while away these hours of confinement.   (And Karen...tell the Wrinklies Readers if you will ...to feel free to add their own gardening posts here.  This way we can keep you two plenty distracted and ready to put your toes in the earth at Tillygrain soon!)

I suppose there might have been a few gardening days before today...but it would have been a better gardener than me who would have found some will or way to make use of them.  There was so much rain this past Sunday night that the drain (we say ditch...but it really is the Kochville Middle Drain...which means DEEP) was flooded with water halfway up to the house and three inches seeped into the basement.  It receded by midday Monday, but there are still low spots with standing water in the woodlot.  When the water  level was down I walked up the road to take pictures of our drain tiles flowing water from the back acres into the ditch...success...Greg and the girls installed that drainage system last year.  It works!

This day though is warm enough, a bit breezy and gusty.  My first task is to uncover the hosta bed, gather up the windfall sticks and burn them in Greg's pirated bong. Not sure what this fireplace thing is called but the girl's and I call it the bong.  Sweet smell of wood smoke.  The day ended with me freeing up my garden wagon from the barn.  Had to move off the tools that settled on top of it, like the leaves and pine needles had settled on the hosta bed.  Sunday...wagon goes into action.